On This Day: Nwankwo Kanu Blobs His Arsenal Debut With Controversial ‘Fair Play’ Clanger, 1999 (Video)

Chris Wright

13th, February 2015

4 Comments

By Chris Wright

Arsenal v Shef Wed/Overmars

After making just 12 appearances (scoring once) for Inter Milan in three whole seasons at the Italian side, there were a few eyebrows raised quizzically when Arsenal spent the better part of £4.5million on Nwankwo Kanu – a former Nigerian youth prodigy with a well-known history of congenital heart issues – in February of 1999.

Given the nature of his style and his track record, the lanky 21-year-old Nigerian’s maiden appearance in England proved to be suitably bamboozling – coming as it did a couple of weeks later against Sheffield United in the fifth round of the FA Cup, on this very day some 16 years ago.

With the score level at 1-1 and with just 10 minutes left to play, Kanu – with a little help from his partner in crime, one Marc Overmars – sparked an infamously controversial incident which that eventually saw the entire tie being replayed from scratch.

Indeed, just 11 minutes into his debut, Kanu firmly introduced himself to English football by unwittingly (at least that was his excuse afterwards) failing to cotton on to the fact that he should have been returning the ball to the Blades following an injury-related throw-in.

Instead, he lolloped his way down the touchline and laid on a sitter for Overmars, who “instinctively” sprinted 25 yards at full bore to tap the winner home…

There was no obligation to return the ball and yadda yadda yadda but, come on – you just don’t do that man! Not cool!

To Arsenal’s credit, the club offered to replay the game at Highbury, which the Gunners went on to win 2-1 both fairly and/or squarely and all was well with the world again.

Posted in FA Cup, FAIL, Featured, Retro, Videos

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4 Comments

  1. EDub says:

    Wait, why does Kanu get the blame and not Overmaars???

  2. bob says:

    and wait, why didnt arsenal just let them score a goal instead of playing the whole match again and charging fans for a game that on paper never existed…..

  3. Soccer Steve says:

    @bob

    Go home, you’re drunk Bob.

  4. Tom the Bees fan says:

    I didn’t think it should be replayed, if the players really injured let the ref stop it. If you knock it off so your player can get treatment that’s your problem

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